“Current drugs for anxiety,” says senior study author Mike Fainzilber, who is a professor in the biomolecular sciences department at the Weizmann Institute, “are limited in their efficacy or have undesirable side effects, which also limit their usefulness.”

He suggests that the findings could help to overcome these drawbacks.

Anxiety and MeCP2

Most people experience anxiety now and again as part of everyday life. Anxiety disorders, however, are conditions in which the feelings of fear and uncertainty become overwhelming and do not go away. They typically last for 6 months or more.

The National Institutes of Health estimate that anxiety disorders affect around 1 in 5 people in the United States each year.